Verbatim · Premium · Pro · Pro+ · Store 'n' Go · PinStripe · microSD · SD · USB
Verbatim memory card recovery. A name from the disc years, on today's cards and drives from the common makers.
Verbatim's name is on cards and drives in supermarkets and stationers, and the cards are the Premium, Pro and Pro+ microSD and SD lines, with the Store 'n' Go and PinStripe USB drives beside them. They carry flash and controllers from the common makers and fall within the schemes the recovery trade has documented. The faults are the common ones: torn tables, formats, a card worn out in a dashcam, a drive snapped in a port, a controller stopped. The warranty replaces the card. A Verbatim card a reader still sees is £149 + VAT after the free look, fixed in writing; one no reader sees, or one snapped, locked or counterfeit, is £299 + VAT.
Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
0800 6890668
Lines and models we see.
Which card is it →| Line | Models and markings | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Premium | microSD and SD UHS-I | Phones, budget cameras |
| Pro and Pro+ | microSD and SD; V30, A2 | Cameras, drones |
| USB drives | Store 'n' Go, PinStripe | Offices; board or monolith |
What tends to go wrong on Verbatim cards and drives.
Verbatim symptoms, and how long each gives you.
Not listed? Describe it on the form →What you see on Verbatim cards and drives, and what it means.
Describe yours to us →| What you see | The usual reason | What the bench does |
|---|---|---|
| Needs formatting, or card error | Torn file tables | Image; rebuild the tables on the image |
| Not detected anywhere | The controller has stopped | Chip-off on a board; test pads on a monolith |
| Write-protected with the switch open | The end-of-life lock | Copy off now; image in passes if it is slow |
| Shows the wrong size, or loses files past a point | A counterfeit under this label | The real flash recovered; the rest was never stored |
From the envelope arriving to your files going back.
Work we have closed →Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free
A case number goes on the envelope and a number on the card the day it is opened, with both sides photographed. The card goes into a reader on a hardware imager that controls how long each read may take, never a laptop slot, and what it presents is read first: its capacity, its identity registers, its file system. That decides whether it is a card a reader can see with a fault in the data, or a card whose controller has stopped, and which band it falls in. The first look is free, and you can stop there owing nothing.
Imaged, sector by sector, before anything else
A card that answers at all is imaged in full on hardware that limits every read and retries on its own terms, weak areas last, with a map kept of what could not be read. A card that is slow, that drops out, or that has locked itself read-only is imaged the same way, in short passes with the power cycled between them. Nothing is written to the card at any stage, and every later step happens on the image.
The flash read through the test pads when the controller has stopped
A card no reader sees is a monolith job. The coating is removed to expose the internal test pads, the pinout is matched against a database or mapped by hand, a needle adapter is fitted, and the raw flash is read out around the dead controller. The scrambling, the error-correction layout and the page and block order are then solved in software, and a virtual image of the card assembled from the raw dump.
The file system rebuilt, or the files carved, on the image
On the image, the FAT or exFAT tables are rebuilt where they are damaged and read where they are not, deleted entries are brought back, and where the tables are gone the photographs and video are carved out by their own signatures. Video files cut short by a dead battery are rebuilt from a reference clip from the same camera. Every photograph is opened before it goes on the list; a file that will not open is not counted.
You see the file list before you pay
What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not, and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. The files go home on fresh media with the card, tracked, with the postage paid here, and your case stays open until you have opened them yourself.
From the bench
- The warranty replaces the card and does not touch the data. Claim it after the recovery, not before; the maker will not send the card back.
- Say where the card was bought. The big names are the counterfeited ones, and a marketplace card under this label may not be this brand inside.
- The free recovery software is a fair first step on a card that reads cleanly, and the wrong one on a card that does not.
What helps, and what harms.
Do this much first
- Take the card out and leave it out
- Say no to every format and repair
- Note the line, the capacity and where it was bought
- Send it tracked; the first look is free
What sets us back
- Formatting to get the device working again
- Claiming the warranty before the data is off
- Running the maker's format tool
- Forcing a read-only lock off
Questions answered before you commit.
The computer says my Verbatim card needs formatting. Are the photographs gone?
Almost never. The tables are torn and the photographs are behind them. Say no and send the card.
Does the maker recover data?
No card maker does. The warranty replaces the card and does not touch the data; recover first and claim after.
What does it cost?
£149 + VAT if a reader still sees the card after the free look; £299 + VAT if none does, or if it is snapped, locked or counterfeit. Fixed in writing, and on most jobs no data means no bill.
How long does it take?
3–5 days at the bench for a card a reader sees; 5–10 days at the bench for monolith or SSD-class work.
Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.
Nothing gets worse while the card is out of the device.
Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. On most jobs an invoice only follows the data. Until that list reaches you, leave the card in its bag and format nothing.